Dan Bricklin on the Birth of the Spreadsheet

Welcome back to Series 2 of the Danielle Newnham Podcast. I am your host – Danielle Newnham and each week, I interview tech founders and innovators to learn the inspiring, human, stories behind the game-changing tech we use every day.

Today, I am thrilled to kick off Series 2 with Dan Bricklin – the man behind the very first electronic spreadsheet.

Dan received a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering and computer science from the MIT before coming up with the idea for VisiCalc whilst studying Business at Harvard Business School. Not only did VisiCalc form the basis of what we all know to be the spreadsheet today but at the time, Steve Jobs credited VisiCalc with helping drive Apple II’s success. 

In this episode, we explore Dan’s background, what got him excited about engineering as a kid and what it was like studying at MIT at the dawn of such an exciting age.

We also discuss the motivation behind creating VisiCalc and what it felt like to have someone so close to him essentially copy it – you’ll be surprised to hear there were no hard feelings!

Dan’s work has been critical to the innovation which followed and I am grateful that he shared his story with me.

I hope you enjoy it too.

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Let us know what you think of this episode and please rate, review and share - it means the world to me and helps others to find it too.

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Danielle on Twitter @daniellenewnham and  Instagram @daniellenewnham

Dan Bricklin on Twitter @danb / website / buy his book here.

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This episode was hosted by me - Danielle Newnham, a recovering founder, author and writer who has been interviewing tech founders and innovators for ten years - and produced by Jolin Cheng.